Ed
Bachelder is the Director of Research at BlueFlame Consulting. Previously
Ed was the Director of Research and Analytics at Dove Consulting where he
contributed to more than 230 consumer and business research studies
examining customer needs and market opportunities for commercial, financial
and government clients. Ed has researched banking and payment topics
ranging from ATM deployment economics to Check 21-based remote deposit
capture, check cashing, ACH check conversion, check cashing, and
transportation trends, consumer and business payment preferences, debit card
growth, DDA account product design and distribution economics for EFT
services, Lockbox Processing and Online Banking. Notably, Ed led the
FDIC’s Survey of Banks’ Efforts to Serve the Unbanked and Underbanked. He
led the 2001, 2004 and 2007 Electronic Payments Studies to measure the
volume and value of electronic payments conducted in the United States on
behalf of the Federal Reserve System. Ed led the Treasury Department’s
landmark study on the growth and usage on Non-Bank Financial Institutions
and has conducted two conjoint studies of unbanked individuals: most
recently supporting the Southeast Michigan Study with Professor Barr and
previously for the Treasury department to identify key attributes and
delivery channels for the ETA program to facilitate electronic payments to
unbanked federal check recipients. He has also assisted with Dove
Consulting’s Bi-annual Consumer Payments Preference Study which has tracked
the migration from paper to electronic payments in the United States over
eight years. Ed has authored articles for AFP Exchange, American
Banker, Bank Administration, Journal of Retail Banking, MSNBC, New York
Times Training and Development, Today and the Treasury Department and
has been quoted on payment issues by MSNBC and the New York Times.
He has completed doctoral coursework at Boston University, has an MBA
from Northeastern University with a concentration in Finance and Operations
Research, and a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts.